Blog Post 4: Sampling Strategies

Community: Mohn Mill

Out of the three sampling techniques: Area systematic, Area random and Area Haphazard. The technique that had the fastest estimated sampling time was Area systematic with a time of 12 hours, 35minutes. While Area random has a time of 13 hours, 13 minutes and Area haphazard had a time of 12 hours, 56 minutes.

The two mots common species were the Red Maple and Witch Hazel and the two rarest species were Sweet Birch and American basswood.

Percent errors for the two most common species:

Red maple using Area systematic: 8.99%

Witch hazel using Area systematic: 7.04%

Red maple using Area random: 3.8%

Witch hazel using Area random: 12.9%

Red maple using Area Haphazard: 2.06%

Witch hazel using Area haphazard: 2.39%

Looking at these percent errors I can say that the technique Area Haphazard yielded the most accurate results.

Percent errors calculated for the two rarest species:

American basswood using Area systematic: 166.68%

Sweet birch using Area systematic: 100%

American basswood using Area random: 100%

Sweet birch using Area random: 100%

American basswood using area Haphazard: 100%

Sweet birch using area haphazard: 250%

Looking at these percent errors I can say that non of the techniques yielded any accurate results on the rare species.

Yes the accuracy did change within species  abundance.

Even though the Area Systematic technique was the fastest sampling technique, it was not the more accurate of the three options. By looking at percent error, I would say that for common species in an area, the most accurate way of sampling was Area Haphazard. And for the rarest species I would say to use a different technique than the techniques given.